Frenchmen Street's nightclub limit challenged by Bamboula's

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One of the newest additions to Frenchmen Street is challenging a moratorium on new clubs on the three-block stretch of the city that has transformed itself from a sleepy strip in Faubourg Marigny to a world-renowned destination.

Bamboula's, 514 Frenchmen St., has requested that the city allow it to change its permitted designation from a standard restaurant to a cocktail lounge with live entertainment.

The property's owner said the change will free the restaurant from certain restrictions and allow the business' operators to focus on the primary reason hundreds of thousands of people flock to Frenchmen Street every year: music.

Nearby residents and neighborhood organizations are against the request, saying the area is at a tipping point, and businesses like Bamboula's that flout the law are threatening the future and vitality of Frenchmen Street.

The City Planning Commission staff this week recommended denial of the restaurant's request but a final decision won't be made until February.

Bamboula's is in the former home of Laborde Printing, between the Maison and Blue Nile. Bamboula's originally wanted to open as a live music venue with two stages and three bars on the first and second floors. The planning commission rejected that proposal in January 2013, stating that Frenchmen Street had already exceeded the number of bars legally allowed on the street between Esplanade Avenue and Royal Street.

The owners of Bamboula's -- Guy Olano, Jr. and Joseph Ascani -- scaled back their plans and opened in October 2013 as a standard restaurant which permits unamplified music by groups with no more than three members.

Andre Laborde, whose family has owned the property since 1945 and leases it to Olano and Ascani, said they asked to be reclassified as a cocktail lounge in December because it has been difficult to generate more than 50 percent of their revenue through food sales, which is required of restaurants that serve alcohol.

If it is allowed to operate as a bar, Bamboula's would continue to serve food, Laborde said, but it would be free to present the type of musical acts the crowds demand and make the operation stronger financially.

"Someone asked me why I didn't lease the space to a hardware store or a bakery," Laborde said. "I had a 'for lease' sign out there for 14 months and no one came to talk to me about putting in a bakery. Southern Living magazine named this one of the hottest streets in the world for music. It wasn't named the hottest street for hardware stores or say, 'If you want Kaiser rolls go to Frenchmen Street.'"

Lisa Suarez, president of Faubourg Marigny Improvement Association, which opposes the change, said that Bamboula's has operated as a nightclub since it first opened, ignoring regulations designed to prevent the area from devolving into another Bourbon Street. If given free rein to operate as a bar with live music, she said she fears it will only get worse.

"We've had a lot of success (on Frenchmen Street) but also a lot of disappointment in terms of people playing by rules," Suarez said. "It's been difficult to reel anyone in because we get no enforcement. So we're forced to ask for stronger zoning as a protective measure so it doesn't get out of hand."

Ascani and Olano, who didn't respond to requests for comment, own Temptations, Fiorella's, Last Call Sports & Grill and the Dock bars in Slidell and Pensacola, Fla.

The staff of the City Planning Commission recommended during a Jan. 13 hearing that Bamboula's request be denied, citing the Arts and Cultural Overlay District that governs the business activity on Frenchmen Street.

The district was created in 2004 at a time when live music was beginning to flourish on the street but wasn't legally allowed according to city zoning.

Designed to balance the concerns of residents and businesses, the overlay district permitt existing clubs, such as Spotted Cat, d.b.a., Blue Nile, Cafe Brasil and Snug Harbor, to remain open while allowing new clubs to apply for licenses. It also included strict limitations.

Bars can account for only 20 percent of the buildings on Frenchmen Street and are limited in size to 4,000 square feet.

The planning commission staff said they conducted an informal survey of the street, counting the businesses that are licensed as bars and those that are licensed as restaurants but "provide late night entertainment and operate essentially as cocktail lounges."

The staff determined that 14 of the 50 buildings on Frenchmen Street, or 28 percent, were either bars or de facto bars, above the 20 percent threshold.

Laborde questioned the staff's numbers, criticizing their inclusion of 13 Monaghan, Yuki and Three Muses, as nightclubs masquerading as restaurants.

Three Muses and Yuki comply with the restaurant standards, Laborde said, while 13 Monghan has never had live music.

On behalf of Bamboula's, the Montgomery Law Center conducted its own survey of the 400-600 blocks of Frenchmen Street and determined that 13.8 percent of the businesses are cocktail lounges.

"Therefore, by allowing the addition of Bamboula's request would only accelerate that percentage to 16.6 percent," attorney Connie Montgomery wrote to the planning commission.

The commission's staff also recommended denial of Laborde's change of use request based on the size limitation in the overlay district.

The first floor of the building where Bamboula's operates is home to the Frenchmen Theater, which also requested that its permitted use be changed to a cocktail lounge. It is currently licensed to operate as a theater without alcoholic beverage sales.

The staff noted that the only thing separating the two businesses is a metal roll-up door and if the door is opened, the combined space would amount to 5,234 square feet, well over the 4,000 square foot limit.

"The proposed cocktail lounge would generate significant levels of noise and activity which would likely be experienced well into the night," the staff's report says. "The cumulative impact of the noise and activity resulting could compromise the quality of life in the residential areas."

The commission deferred the matter to Feb. 10.

Laborde, who has lived on Frenchmen Street since 1958, said that if the change of use request is denied it would be "disheartening."

Frenchmen Street used to be a thriving commercial center, like Canal Street, until the 1960s when it turned to rot and became a dead zone, he said. The only thing that brought it back to life was live, local music, which attracted national and international attention after Hurricane Katrina.

"You're probably talking to the only person who's seen the complete transformation of Frenchmen Street," he said. "I've lived there since I was born in 1958. When I was 10 years old I would stand on Frenchmen lighting firecrackers and I was the only one on the street. On Halloween we'd literally have nobody out there."

Laborde Printing closed after the storm and until Bamboula's opened the city wasn't collecting any sales tax from that property, he said.

"This is a viable business that hires a lot of people and is a place people come to enjoy the music," Laborde said.

Suarez said her opposition to the change of use request is not about music, it's about following the law and being a good neighbor.

Bamboula's, while designated as a restaurant, has featured full bands with amplified instruments, placed speakers near their entrance with the doors open, and blocked off public parking on the street to attract large crowds, she said.

Suarez conceded that due to the rapid growth of Frenchmen Street there likely will be changes made to the 11-year-old overlay district that could allow businesses currently licensed as restaurants to be redesignated as live music clubs. But Bamboula's should not be included, she said.

"Their residential neighbors are at their wit's end regarding the volume of sound emanating from the rear of the building and their extended hours," she wrote in a Jan. 5 letter to the planning commission. "They, from appearances, never had an intent to be a restaurant. If you feel another cocktail permit should be granted on Frenchmen Street it should go to one of the three clubs that preceded them in operating outside the law, thereby making them legal as they have been there longer."